New school to replace aging, unsafe building.

PROGRESS is under way on the construction of an additional six-room primary school in Ta Trav village, Angkor Thom district, following the February groundbreaking.

The formal inauguration and ribbon cutting ceremony is tentatively planned for November, and the hope is that the new school building will be ready for the next academic year.

There is a functioning school on the site, but Angkor Thom district has an annual process by which a priority needs assessment is undertaken. The new school at Ta Trav is necessary to replace the existing wooden school, which has extensive termite damage that will render it increasingly unsafe, officials said.

Trailblazer Foundation is the principal NGO managing the construction of the new school. The British School of Beijing and the Cambodian Land

Mine Museum Relief Fund are providing financial support.

The current school building has been housing 340 students, but this recently swelled to 478 after construction work closed the  school in neighbouring Bos Ta Trav village. The new Ta Trav school building will be able to accommodate  the maximum number of students permitted by the government, which is 40 students per classroom for two sessions per day.

This will allow for 480 pupils at the school, which teaches levels 1 through 6. Seven teachers, supported by the Siem Reap Provincial Department of Education, Youth and Sport, will work at the school.

Meanwhile, problems have surfaced at a 100-plus pupil school in Veal village run by Supporting Orphans and Indigent People of Cambodia for Development. The school is built on the grounds of a pagoda, and following a dispute with monks, the NGO has been evicted and is desperate to find nearby land to build a new school.